Laundry outlet boxes are commonly used today to provide for neat and orderly attachment of the inlet and drain hoses of a washing machine to the water supply and drain piping concealed in the wall of the laundry room. Such boxes may also serve as a container to catch and dispose of any leakage water from the hose connections which otherwise would run into the wall or onto the floor. Accordingly, such boxes are preferably water tight except for the front access opening.
The outlet boxes are usually recess mounted in the wall between vertical wall supports, i.e., wall studs, by one or more mounting brackets or flanges. In many cases, the brackets or flanges are fixed to the box and accordingly the outlet box may only be mounted in one position relative to the wall surface. Depending on the thickness of the material used for the wall surface, i.e., paneling, plaster, or wall board, the front opening of the box may not fit flush with the outer surface of the wall even though such flush fit is usually considered desirable. Moreover, the facing or cover plate commonly utilized to cover the rough-cut opening in the wall surface material may not be able to be properly attached if the wall surface material is too thick. Accordingly, different outlet boxes may be required for use with different wall surface materials.
It is generally known to provide detachable and adjustable mounting brackets for mounting a laundry outlet box in the wall in one of several positions with respect to the wall surface. Such a construction may be seen, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,158,471. However, the outlet box disclosed in such patent only provides for two adjusted positions and is not readily adaptable for providing more than that. Accordingly, the outlet box cannot properly accommodate more than two surface material thicknesses. Moreover, it is not always possible to tell whether or not the box is properly secured in the desired adjusted position, and it is also sometimes difficult to move the box from one adjusted position to another when desired.
Another disadvantage of some known outlet boxes is that they can accommodate only one size of supply pipe or drain pipe. Most supply pipes used today are either copper or galvanized pipe, both of which have a one-half inch internal diameter. However, the outer diameter of the galvanized pipe is greater than that of the copper pipe and thus requires a larger opening in the outlet box. To overcome this deficiency, some boxes employ plural knock-out plugs for the different supply pipes.
With regard to the drain pipe union, it is known to provide tailpipes on the boxes which have an upper larger diameter portion and a lower reduced diameter portion to enable coupling with drain pipes of two different sizes. However, since code requirements commonly require a minimum overlap such as 3/4 inch at the drain pipe joint where plastic pipe is being used to provide sufficient cementing surface, heretofore the overall length of the dual-size tailpipe had to be twice that required if only a single tailpipe were employed. Accordingly, the tailpipe projected considerably beyond the bottom of the box thereby adding to the size of the box and requiring larger packaging and storage area.
It is also known to employ removable tailpipes to decrease package size and storage requirements; however, heretofore such tailpipe-box joints provided a trap for standing water which is also undesirable.
Another disadvantage in outlet boxes which also provide for laundry electrical connections is that the electrical outlet boxes are usually mounted in only one position on the sidewalls of the box with the fasteners therefor extending through the sidewalls. This, however, destroys the integrity of the box and provides a direct water path from inside the box to the electrical wiring contained in the electrical outlet box.